729) Speeches on the Armenians Attributed to Atatürk and his help to the Victims of Armenian Terrorists

In this article, claims were attributed to Founder of Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was investigated and it will be searched whether these claims were true or false.

In this research, firstly, the claims about Atatürk were presented. Then materials, which supported these claims or rejected them, were searched.

To find sources about the subject, research was conducted in archives and libraries. Original documents were found in Directorate General of State Archive. At the end of the research, it was found out that speeches were wrongly attributed to Atatürk and claims about Atatürk contradict each other.

Atatürk helped the members of the Union of Progress, who were unjustly treated by the “Court Martials”, which were under the pressure of England, and he also helped relatives of those were killed by Armenian terrorists.

The first claim about Atatürk was that he was one of the witnesses, who supported Armenians in the “Court Martials” in �stanbul. In this claim, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was confused with the Chairman of the “Court Martials”, Mustafa Kemal, whose nickname was Nemrud. During the trials in �stanbul, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was in Ankara as a leader of the national struggle.

The second claim was about the statement, which attributed to Atatürk, given to Los Angeles Examiner in 1926. However, it was proven that this claim, which was made by Armenians in various platforms, was false. There was no evidence that a Swiss journalist, who was called Hilderband, came to Turkey. Moreover, it was not found a journalist named Hilderband in the documents of Swiss authorities.

The third claim about Atatürk was put forward in Yeni Biny�l newspaper on 8 October 2000. According to this claim in his speech in Turkish Grand National Assembly, on 24th of April, Atatürk condemned the leaders of Jön Turks for their genocide policies. After the research of the speech records of Turkish Grand National Assembly in both open and secret sessions, it was proven that Mustafa Kemal did not make such speech.

One of the last claims about Atatürk was put forward by European Parliament, Foreign Affairs Committee’s report on Turkey on 22nd of November 2001. In the footnote of this report claimed that Mustafa Kemal gave a speech in Turkish Grand National Assembly on 10th of April 1921, in which he said Jön Turk regime followed genocide policy against Armenians in the First World War. After the research of the speech reports of Turkish Grand National Assembly, it was seen that Mustafa Kemal did not speak in Turkish Grand National Assembly in April 1920. He even did not attend any session of Assembly during April 1920.

In this article, Courts of Martial, which were set up by the Ottoman government under the pressure of England, were searched. The trials of governor of Bo�azl�yan, Kemal Bey and governor of Urfa, Nusret Bey, who were unjustly treated and executed, were examined in this article. After this examination, it was found out that Atatürk put Kemal Bey’s and Nusret Bey’s families a salary and even he gave them a house.

As a consequence, it was shown in this article that the claims about Atatürk were false and he was not the type of person, who would say the things attributed to him.

Dr. �enol KANTARCI*
* -
- Armenian Studies, Issue 4, December 2001 - January-February 2002